Stage Reviews
Always, Patsy Cline Foothill Theatre Company revives its popular 1999 production with the same cast: Cara Burgoyne, a natural as strong, husky, inwardly vulnerable Patsy; and Nancy Keith as a single mom with big hair who is Patsy’s fan turned friend. The show features Burgoyne’s accurate vocals, with a live band, reprising Cline’s signature country tunes. It’s also an upbeat but not entirely frivolous retro-comedy dealing with what it meant to be a hardworking, independent woman in the late 1950s, with a few stops at a honky-tonk nightspot along the way. It’s a slice of Americana for the summer season.
Nevada Theatre , 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; $5-$21. 401 Broad Street in Nevada City, (530) 265-8587. Through August 17. J.H.
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress M-e-o-w! A quintet of bridesmaids, representing vastly different outlooks on life, retreat from the boring wedding reception to an upstairs room and let their hair down. The sometimes catty conversation veers through current boyfriends and husbands, drugs and alcohol, former boyfriends and ex-husbands, coming of age, new boyfriends and potential husbands—you get the idea. Playwright Alan Ball (now famous for his American Beauty screenplay) blends lively characters and interesting insights into this wild situation. All five actresses get their moment to shine—especially Beth Edwards, in her best role to date. Young Michael Claudio also fares well in a difficult role as the available man who walks into the final scene.
Actor’s Theatre , 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, $12-$14. 1616 Del Paso Boulevard, (916) 925-6579. Through August 3. J.H.
The King and I Garbeau’s works with InterACT for this production, bringing in Dennis Yep as director and star. It’s an ambitious undertaking for Yep, who usually works with smaller casts and even smaller budgets, but it’s clear this production is close to his heart. Yep is an effective King in stance and delivery and brings a pathos to the role that sometimes is lost in more heavy-handed productions. Kitty Kean as Anna, the teacher, totally captures the spirit and spunk of the character while keeping her humanity, humility and humor intact. The pacing drags at times, and though the two talented pianists work their musical fingers to the bones, the familiar score begs for some strings.
Garbeau’s Dinner Theatre , 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (dinner at 6 p.m.) and 2:30 p.m. Sunday (brunch at 1 p.m.), $34-$39 for the show and a meal or $20 for the show only. 12401 Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova, (916) 985-6361. Through July 20. P.R.
T Bone N Weasel This odd comedy sends a small-time car thief (who’s black) and a relentlessly nervy, illiterate sidekick (who’s white) on a strange odyssey through the rural South, where their underhanded efforts to live off the land get them into trouble repeatedly. Actor James Ellison does a long, slow burn as the thief, while Damion Sharpe nearly hyperventilates as his hapless associate. Resourceful JG Gonsalves contributes a catalog of memorable cameos. Director James Wheatley presents it as a sequence of casually related (almost disconnected) scenes—but then, Jon Klein’s script doesn’t have a clear destination in mind.
Celebration Arts , 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday (no show June 12) and 2 p.m. Sunday, $10-$12 ($6 on Thursday). 4469 D Street, (916) 455-2787. Through July 12. J.H.
Winners and Losers Irish playwright Brian Friel’s script is a pair of one-acts, each funny and sad. The first focuses on the difficulties of love at the tender age of 17, including pregnancy, impending marriage and forebodings that an unexpected disaster is about to strike. The second deals with the awkward, funny trials of romance at midlife—including a bedridden mother and a lisping auntie, who physically embody a matriarchal family structure gone dysfunctional. Director Stephen Vargo gets some good work from actors Keith Letl, Benjamin Hanowell and Michaela Jones, but the larger scenes involving the bedridden mum aren’t as convincing.
Thistle Dew Dessert Theatre , 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, $14-18. 1901 P Street, (916) 444-8209. Through August 2. J.H.
